1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to dental equipment and, more specifically, to a disposable dental prophylaxis angle for use in cleaning, polishing, bleaching, bonding, etching, or abrading teeth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dentists, oral hygienists and their assistants employ an abrasive paste to clean and polish their patient's teeth. Similarly, other flowable dentifrice compounds are employed to bleach or abrade teeth or perform a number of other dental procedures. To this end, the dentist employs a handpiece to which is mounted a prophylaxis right angle commonly referred to in the art as a "prophylaxis angle" or "prophy angle." The prophy angle has a cup which is operatively rotated through a power source transmitted via the handpiece. The polishing paste and other flowable dentifrice may be stored in a small container. The cup is dipped into the dentifrice stored in the container and then applied to the surface of the tooth. The cup is then rotated in a lapping fashion via the powered handpiece. The rotational movement of the cup as it applies the paste cleans and polishes, bleaches or abrades the tooth. Additional amounts of dentifrice are scooped out of the container as needed and the process is repeated.
In the past, prophy angles were reusable from patient to patient. However, in modern dental practice, the prophy angle is a disposable item which is thrown away after use on one patient. Thus, modern prophy angles are usually made of plastic and are designed to be inexpensive. Similarly, the small container usually holds only enough dentifrice for one patient, and it too is disposable.
For a number of years, there has been an ongoing effort to prevent the transmission of diseases during dental procedures. Control of fluid borne diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, and Herpes has been of particular concern to dental practitioners, not only for the sake of the patient's health, but the practitioner's as well. To combat the inadvertent transmission of such diseases, dental equipment is sterilized between each use. However, the sterilization procedure is conducted at significant cost to the dentist. The disposable dental prophylaxis right angle provided one convenient solution to the problems of transmitting fluid borne diseases between subsequent patients as well as reducing costs associated with sterilization.
Although the disposable prophy angle was a tremendous breakthrough, problems still exist relating to the application of dentifrice (paste) to the patient's teeth using the disposable prophy angle. Conventional prophy angles effectively prevent the spread of disease from patient to patient, but do not completely protect the dentist. The container of paste may be held on the finger of the practitioner. Pressure must be employed with the paste to apply it to the prophy cup of the prophy angle. This pressure often stalls the motor that drives the prophy angle. As the pressure is reduced, the motor overcomes the stall pressure, and the rotational speed of the prophy cup quickly increases, spraying buccal matter such as saliva, blood, and tissue particles. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as "splatter." Splatter can occur even in the presence of a minimal amount of buccal matter.
Attempts have been made in the past to incorporate flowable dentifrice within the prophylaxis right angle. However, these efforts have generally failed for one reason or another and prophy angles including flowable dentifrice, such as polishing paste incorporated therein have not been adopted by dental practitioners. More specifically, early prophy angles having paste incorporated therein were not disposable. Additionally, the related art suffered from the disadvantage that the paste delivery mechanisms employed in the prophy angles were relatively mechanically complex and therefore cost prohibitive. For example, disposable prophy angles having internal paste delivery systems using an auger-like structure of the type proposed in the related art must overcome problems associated with charging an internal reservoir with dentifrice material either before or after the auger is assembled into the prophy angle. Either way, the helical blades of the auger, which typically extend for a substantial portion of the internal diameter of the fluid reservoir, make it difficult to fully charge the reservoir with the dentifrice material. Also, the auger blades make advancement of the dentifrice material dependent on the direction of rotation and rotational speed of the auger. Prophy angles presently known in the related art were also too large to be practical or were generally more difficult to use and required retraining the practitioner before use on a patient.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for a disposable prophy angle which is inexpensive and effective which also promotes reducing the incidences of splatter during cleaning, polishing and other dental operations. There is also a need in the art for a disposable prophy angle which incorporates a flowable dentifrice material therein with an effective means for dispensing predetermined amounts of the material during polishing, cleaning and other dental procedures. Additionally, there remains a need in the art for such a prophy angle which is compact and not cumbersome, easy and intuitive to use and which does not require retraining before use on a patient.